Calvary Lutheran Church

The Raw Emotions of Easter

Jesus Christ is risen today! Halleluiah!

John 20:1-18

Dear worshipers of the risen Savior:

About 12 years ago I travelled to Israel with a group of other WELS pastors. We visited, among other places, Jesus’ birthplace of Bethlehem, his childhood town of Nazareth; his home-base of operations, Capernaum; and, of course, Jerusalem, the place of his passion.

But the climax of our 10 days of touring the Holy Land was arriving at the most probable place of Jesus’ crucifixion, Golgotha, and the nearby resurrection tomb. Although it was late in the afternoon when we arrived, we spent some time at the garden tomb, at least a couple of hours, walking inside the tomb and touring the area around it. But mostly we just stood there reflecting on all that happened at that spot, early one Sunday morning, 2,000 years ago.

It is hard to describe the feelings and emotions one has to actually be there. But perhaps the best way to describe it is an overwhelming sense of closeness with the Lord Jesus. By that I mean a sense of being loved by a man who left his throne in heaven to suffer and die for my sins, but also being loved by a man who claimed to be the very Son of God and proved it by rising at that spot from the dead.

That’s what I felt. But tell me, what emotions are you feeling right now as you celebrate this festival of the resurrection? I realize that you are not standing outside the actual tomb of Jesus right now. But you certainly are feeling something that brought you here today. I would like to know, what is it?

Perhaps we would do well to investigate the emotions of those who participated in that first Easter and see what they felt. For they especially experienced

THE RAW EMOTIONS OF EASTER.

One emotion that was obviously felt that first Easter was confusion, perplexity, bewilderment. This was what the women felt who came to the tomb early in the morning expecting to find it just as they had left it three days earlier. In fact, they were concerned as to how they might roll the huge stone away from the entrance, so they might complete the embalming process. Instead, they found the stone already rolled away. How could that be? Did Joseph of Arimathea maybe come back to check on the body? There had been an earthquake earlier in the morning, did that maybe jolt the huge stone slab to the side?

And while they were still wondering about that, some of the women looked inside the tomb and saw that the body of Jesus was gone. Now anxiety was added to their perplexity. “Where’s the body? Did someone move it? Did someone steal it? Who would do such a thing?” Mary, we are told ran to Peter and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him!” “And what if we never find out? How can we live each day not knowing where Jesus was buried?”

Perhaps some of the billion or more people in the world who are celebrating Easter today feel the same emotions of confusion about this highest Christian festival called “Easter.” “What really happened back then?” they wonder. Maybe nothing. Maybe these four Gospel writers just made up these stories years later so the memory of Jesus would live on. Or, maybe there is a perfectly logical explanation for the empty tomb. Maybe Jesus never really died, and he just revived in the coolness of the tomb and walked out. Maybe the women went to the wrong tomb! We know there are some Christians with issues concerning Biblical accuracy who think that way today. So they will always wonder, “What happened to Jesus’ body?”

But that doubt carries with it a certain amount of anxiety. Because if we don’t know what happened to Jesus’ body, how in the world can we ever know what will happen to our dead bodies? We may hope to live our 70 or 80 or 90 years here on earth, but then what? Maybe nothing, maybe the body is just annihilated. Maybe, as some think, we come back to this life reincarnate. Maybe we enter some kind of nirvana, or state of nothingness? A lot of people in this world have a lot of different ideas about the afterlife, and it can be terribly confusing. And to say that we will just have to “wait and see” does nothing to dispel the anxiety.

Another emotion that was felt that first Easter, especially by Mary Magdalene, was sorrow. John’s Gospel tells us that after Mary reported the empty tomb to Peter she stood outside of the tomb weeping. Someone approached her, she thought he was the gardener, and he asked, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She answered, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” She was so overwhelmed with sorrow at the loss of Jesus to death, and now, the absence of his earthly remains as well, that it was all too much for her. Life would never be the same without Jesus, and now she didn’t even have a place to remember him. Her heart was so filled with sorrow that no other thought was allowed to enter it.

Some may attend Easter services, and maybe even some here today, with a deep emotion of sorrow. All this talk about dead bodies and burials and graves has reminded you of a close loved one who has recently or maybe not so recently died. You are seeing a church today with all the beautiful Easter flowers and members and friends singing Easter hymns, and all you can think about is Easters in the past when your mother or father or husband or wife or child was still here with you. And somehow the message of Jesus’ resurrection and the comfort it brings is lost, you miss your loved one too much. You think that the only solution to your sorrow is the return of that loved one to this life. But that cannot happen, so you know only sorrow.

Another emotion that was felt especially by the women at the tomb that first Easter was fear. According to the Gospel of Luke, “Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning, stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground” (Luke 24:4,5). I’ve never seen an angel. I don’t know that I want to. Angels are holy beings. I’m not. Angels are superhuman beings who are always before the face of God. I can’t because of my sin. I suspect my reaction would be the same as these women, total fright and hiding my face to the ground.

There may be some today, maybe some here, for whom the message of Easter brings you fear. Not fear that there was no resurrection of Jesus, but fear that there was. You feel a load of sin. You have not lived your life for the Lord, far from it. It’s maybe been a long time since you have truly repented of your sins, and remember, repentance means putting away all habitual sin. It’s been a long time since you have received Lord’s Supper, so guilt has been building up. You don’t want to think about anything holy—not angels and certainly not the glorified, resurrected Judge of all mankind someday. After all, it was your sin that beat him and wounded him and nailed him to the cross on Good Friday. For you, Peter’s message to the crowd on Pentecost is frightening when he said, “This Jesus whom you put to death by nailing him to the cross, God raised him from the dead.” Like those Jews you are cut to the heart today and ask, “What can we do?” Peter’s answer was, “Repent.” (Acts 2:23-24, 37-38). That’s the remedy for fear today.

Another emotion that was felt that first Easter was disbelief. The Gospel of Luke tells us that the women, after seeing and hearing the angels, told the apostles, but their words to the apostles, “seemed to them like nonsense, and they did not believe them.”

I don’t know if there is anyone here today who has outright unbelief, and who would say, “Jesus did not rise from the dead.” The fact that you are even here would normally dispel any such notions. But I suspect that there are some here today for whom the resurrection of Christ Jesus seems insignificant. “Yes, the tomb was empty. So what? Yes, Jesus rose from the dead. So what? That is a truth that I have known from little on in Sunday school. But it has no impact in my everyday hectic life. Someday, yes, but not right now. My life will remain pretty much the same after today.” I say, there may be some of that thinking floating around here today. If it is not unbelief, then it is very close to it.

Oh I tell you, there was a plethora of emotions that were felt at that first Easter service and to this day as well—most of it negative, most of it unpleasant, most of it faith-lacking. 

But finally, one more emotion that was felt that first Easter, if you want call it an emotion, it is really more a state of the soul, and that was simple, pure, unadulterated faith. The Gospel of John tells us that two of the disciples upon hearing the report of the women decided to go to the tomb to investigate. They ran to the tomb. John arrived first and stood outside the tomb looking in. Peter arrived next and immediately ran inside, saw the linen cloths lying there to wrap the body along with the burial cloth which had been around Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up neatly in a place by itself. Luke tells us that Peter “went away, wondering to himself what had happened” (Luke24:12). He, too, was perplexed.

Then John went in, and the Bible says, “He saw and believed.” So what did he see, and what did he believe? He saw an empty tomb. He saw that the body of Jesus was gone. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and he thought to himself, “If someone had come to steal the body why would they take the grave clothes off? That would have been time-consuming and inconvenient. The body was nicely wrapped already for transportation.”

And he saw the burial cloth neatly folded, and he thought, “If the body was snatched why take the time to neatly fold it.” And with just that information he believed. As unthinkable as it may have seemed to him at the time, and without actually seeing the resurrected Jesus, and not even remembering the Scriptures that said he should rise from the dead, John simply believed that Jesus’ dead body came to life again, that it left tomb, and that he was out there somewhere waiting to be seen.

I don’t know what emotion or condition of the soul you came with here today. But I want you to leave with this one: an overwhelming closeness with Jesus, not because I tell you too, but because you too have seen and believe. Will you actually enter the empty tomb today and see the evidence of the burial cloths? No. But John did. Will you actually see Jesus alive today on this Easter Sunday? No. But John did later that day. Will you actually touch him and hold him and worship at his feet today? Will you hear him speak to you with words of love and encouragement? No. But John did in the 40 days that Jesus showed himself alive. So let John be your eyes and your hands and your ears today. And then believe what he believed: Jesus lives. He really lives.

It was getting dark, so the time came to leave the garden tomb in Jerusalem. At first I was reluctant to do so. I wanted that closeness with the Lord to continue. But then I thought, “This is only a tomb, made of rock and dirt, and empty at that. I don’t have to stay here to feel the closeness of the living Lord. He lives in me wherever I am. And then I was reminded of how close he is when just before we left we celebrated as a group the Lord’s Supper—a meal I have received hundreds of times since. Yes, Jesus lives. He lives in us.

Let us pray:

Dear risen and living Lord, we have investigated the emotions that the participants felt at that first Easter, and we plead for your help today. Seeing and believing with John, may we experience no confusion today about your resurrection. You truly rose from the dead and as a result may we have no anxiety about what happens after death. But because you live we will live also.

Seeing and believing with John, may we experience no sorrow today over loved ones lost. Sure we miss them. Sure we wish they were still here. But help us get on with our lives, appreciate the time God is giving us yet here on earth, and rejoice that we will be reunited with them soon and very soon.

Seeing and believing with John may that faith drive out all fear and guilt over our sin. You did not rise to condemn us, but for our justification, that is, to declare us righteous and holy by faith. May we enjoy peace with God that flows from the certainty of sins forgiven.

And finally seeing and believing with John may we recognize the tremendous impact your resurrection has in our everyday lives. Even as we pray, you fill the universe with your power and glory. You control all things for the good of your church—that’s us. In times of trouble you are there to help. In moments of temptation, you are there with power to overcome. In times of disappointment you lift our spirits. Through our prayers we have access to your throne of grace daily. Oh risen Lord, we don’t have to be eye-witnesses to his resurrection. We know you live, because you live in us. Hallelujah and amen!